Vintage Fall

Vintage Fall by daisical

Just a little vintage fall polyvore for ya! Some great vintage pieces. Click for the item information!

Oh, & Happy Halloween!

Stil in Toronto: Tina

Tina, stylist

A Q&A with William Banks Blaney

William Banks Blaney was christened the "Vintage King" by Vogue.com only 9 months after he had held his first sale of vintage clothing in December of 2009. The 200 pieces he had carefully sourced, selected and edited during his many travels as an interior decorator sold out in under 4 hours. Barely a year and about ten international sales later, William is on top of the game and a full-fledged vintage connoisseur, respected and sought after by fashion stylists, celebrity clients and vintage lovers. 
His next sale will be held on November 4th in London. The collection of about 400 pieces will include fine vintage and couture from Balmain, Balenciaga, Courreges, Dior, Jean Desses, Lanvin, Ossie Clark, Patou, Stavropoulos, Tam and many others, all "in superb condition, stylish and wearable".

So who is this man and what is his secret? After a few personal e-mails and reading his story in Tatler, I discovered an exquisite man, with excellent taste and an extraordinary history.

Natalie Joos: How and why did you start collecting and selling vintage clothing?

William Banks Blaney: After many years working in interior design [and still doing various very high-end projects] as a designer you get to know your clients, how they live and what they like and I would often see a piece, whether vintage or contemporary, and know precisely who would love it. After many years of clients telling me I should do this as a separate business, I took the plunge, founded WilliamVintage and started to collect pieces and hold a sale every few months.

NJ: How do you select and edit the pieces you buy?

WBB: I buy pieces that are in wonderful condition, that are relevant to a modern womans wardrobe and that can be worn today without looking like 'dress up' and which can be worn with contemporary collections and accessories. I believe that vintage should be incorporated into a modern wardrobe. To that end, I buy on average 1 in every 500 pieces that I see. Generally speaking, the pieces focus on a strong silhouette, superb fabrics and a timeless elegance.

NJ: What do you enjoy most about your new found passion?

WBB: I think one of my greatest buzzes comes from seeing someone look good and feel good, walking taller, happier, more confident and freer in themselves. I spent so many years being fat and ridiculed (William was overweight as a child) until I lost weight and was approached by model agencies. Then I had so many years with someone that cowed me and made me feel really terrible about myself (William had a highly publicized relationship with an MP who left his wife and children for him)..... I suppose I know what it feels like to be self-conscious or lacking in confidence and helping people feel better about themselves or express themselves makes me really happy, as well as feed my love for vintage.

NJ: Who are some of your fashion icons?

WBB: I have a great many style icons, from Charlotte Rampling and Marisa Berenson in the 70s to Helen Mirren and Dita von Teese today - women who know who they are, and use clothing to express their personality, mood and life. 

NJ: What is your definition of style?

WBB: Someone once said that true elegance is when you look as though you spent hours selecting your clothes and then forgotten about them the second you put them on. That's very much how I think about it.

For more about William Banks Blaney please visit any of these links:
www.williambanksblaney.com    Interior Design by William Banks-Blaney

www.williamvintage.com            Vintage Couture by William Banks-Blaney

www.williamsays.com                The Lifestyle Blog by William Banks-Blaney


For more about the WilliamVintage sale, please find the invitation below, as well as a small edit of the pieces on sale. 

Balenciaga Couture, 1965

Balenciaga Couture, 1960

Ossie Clark trio, 1970

Courreges Couture, 1965

Courreges, 1968

Balenciaga Couture, 1970

Jean Desses, 1958

Ossie Clark trio

hi blog remember me??

Wow. I have been a SUPER bad blogger! I guess I have just been really busy. I got a new job in my new city of Denver, so I have been a working gal! I am an assistant to a Image Consultant (basically a stylist). It has been an exciting busy first couple weeks, but I am getting back into a routine again, so hopefully I can start blogging again.

Anyways...I thought you all might like to see some photos of me & the boyfriend dressed as classic Night of the Living Dead zombies (we went to a zombie party this past weekend). Our outfits are vintage & I think, pretty fabulous.

enjoy.

I'll write again soon I promise!

Interview: Marius Leknes Snekkevåg

Portrait by Trevor Good for StilinBerlin

Marius Leknes Snekkevåg is a young playwright and actor from Oslo, recently living in Berlin to do research and work on his latest script for Haugesund theatre. Trevor Good sat down with him to get to know more about his latest play that was commissioned after his last script "I love you let me go" was selected to be staged as a part of the Norwegian playwright festival 2009. "Rabinowitz" will be performed at Haugesund theatre from april 7th 2011 and directed by Audny Chris Holsen.

TG: I have never seen one of your plays... but we have discussed them many times so I have a certain mental picture. Do you think the play would somewhat visually match your descriptions or would it be abstracted?

MS: I hope it won`t match what I’ve written! That is how I write; the goal is to make the play as different to what’s on the written page as possible- that always excites me.
In my opinion that makes the script succeed because it means there was a solid enough foundation that the creative team could see new things in it and feel free to add to it.

TG: Do you want this to be an additional layer or a change in direction for your plays?

MS: If you consider the script to be like a map and not the final answer, the choices by the director could be seen as different turns; let’s go left- no wait- let’s go right or try this other way... there is a lot of subtext to what I write but I try my best to give a lot of air around the scenes for others to go a bit wild with their translation of the script.

TG: Your latest script involved a lot of research, it’s based on real people and events. How would a director take liberties, get deep into changes and bringing to light something new when the script seems to be solid in facts and structure?

MS: Well I’m lucky with this play that I was asked to write this and work with a director I have worked with before, so we have good communication, but that still doesn’t matter; a director can turn it into a ballet if they see that as the best way to represent the script. When working with a historical play like this, most people would have a feeling of obligation or commitment to the reality of the events, but it can still be made modern, not an educational play like one would with a high school play or period piece that feels stale. The goal is to modernize it.

TG: Would you direct a play based on one of your scripts?

MS: No. Never. I don’t think any playwright should direct their own plays.

TG: Can you tell me a quick outline of what your latest script is about?

MS: The play is called ‘Rabinowitz’ and is also the last name of the main character Moritz Rabinowitz. He was a Polish Jew that moved to Norway in 1901 to the small town called Haugesund. He quickly became the largest producer and importer of clothing in western Norway. This was a big deal then because at the time Norway was not the rich country as it is today.
He tried to educate people about the Jews and inform about the upcoming war with the Nazis. He was seen as a threat to the Nazis so when they invaded Norway he was captured, brought to Sachsenhausen (his family to Auschwitz and killed) where he was tortured until his death.

TG: Did you include this ending?

MS: Yes but I tried to keep it as clean and simple as possible, stripped down, not too much drama where one wouldn’t be able to watch it.

TG: What about other characters?

MS: The play is supposed to be only 1.5 hours and there are about 40 characters. It’s not a traditional A-Z story but rather a mosaic of scenes where you meet Rabinowitz in Sachsenhausen, in his shop or through debating in the newspapers. I’ve read everything he’s written and the replies from the ones he wrote to; there are definitely characters that could be seen as representing the ‘opposing characters’, such as supporters of anti-Semetism and the Nazi regime, but it’s not about ‘bad-guys’, it’s about people that just let it (the crimes against the Jews in Norway) happen, and not say anything, which is very human; it’s easier to be quiet than to speak up.

TG: Do you think this complete removal of personal responsibility, this thought of ‘I have my own problems so just do what you want with them’ could persist and happen again?

MS: One of the main themes I wanted to put in was ‘us’ against ‘them’, which I call ‘the syndrom’, has existed for all time, since Jesus and before that, with every century having its ‘others’. Now, in Norway, it’s the immigrants and I don’t have to look farther than some in my own family and town how they treat them and speak about them. How sometimes we can even catch ourselves behaving a little bit ‘above’ certain people.

TG: This is pretty much in every country and again a hot topic in the news in Germany.

MS: And to go back to your question, there hasn’t been something like the holocaust but there has been many genocides. So maybe not so structured and as large as the holocaust but it will try to happen; but what is good is the world is more educated as a whole and communications (re: internet) get people mobilized for a cause faster with a better understanding.

TG: But people seem to be less concerned with genocides in Africa than with Global Warming.

MS: Because Global Warming affects one personally. Because we’re egotistical. We’re not evil, we’re just egotistical. I don’t think about Somali pirates because I’m egotistical.

TG: How many plays have you had produced?

MS: This is my 3rd. This is my first play that could be seen as political. I take a stance on the subject.

TG: Did you try to portray your character as a hero?

MS: It’s a bit of a Messiah story. I don’t want to make him a hero. He had a lot of flaws, he was a human being.

TG: Is there a dinner scene and someone turns on him?

MS: Actually there is! But the dinner scene did actually happen; the play is based on actual events. At this dinner he is a guest and people at the dinner start making jokes about Jews right in front of him.

In my first draft I put in as much information as possible from his talks and writings and at some point during editing someone asked if we were supposed to start disliking his character because he talked so much. And this is how people might have seen him back then. He wrote to everyone, to Churchill, to Roosevelt, to all kinds of leaders and I ended up writing both sides of what he was like: passionate, caring but also perhaps too preachy and could not shut-up. But in the end, with whatever power or influence he had, he was a Jew and not taken seriously.



TG: You mention your previous play was picked for a festival in Norway and helped get you some attention and led to being commissioned to write the current script. Can you tell me a bit about it?

MS: It is called ‘I love you let me go’, it`s about relationships, about love and grief. The first couple loses a child and the woman keeps all of his belongings in a box and can’t let go, eventually almost destroying the relationship. The other is a gay couple and it turns out the one man has actually been dead the whole time and is existing only in the mind of his partner. It ended with a long, long, monologue by the man that was dead; it`s an explanation of why he took his own life, not heard by the partner but spoken to the audience.
It got a lot of strong reactions and I’ve never seen anyone bawl like that before! It was a new thing to have the dead character speak about his suicide at the end and I had people coming up to me after that were affected by the play.

TG: Did the character kill himself because of pressures surrounding being gay?

MS: Being gay, no. He was sick, broken. I originally had two straight couples because I didn’t want it to be ‘the gay play’. But I started putting in the gay characters because it would change the world in the way that you’d just say ‘oh, he’s gay’ no big deal. Being gay really has nothing to do with what the play is about.

TG: What comes after Rabinowitz?

MS: I’m not sure what happened but at some point in the middle of writing Rabinowitz I decided to write a trilogy of plays that are all political; political plays about Norway. Maybe living in Berlin and doing the research has somehow turned me more political and I’ve discovered some things about Norway that are not so nice. I used to be such a positive person but now I’ve become much more cynical. I’ve fallen out of love with my own country and that is what I have now to write about.

TG: And finally, how do you feel about translating your work into German and showing it to a German audience? How do you think it would be received here?

MS: The play opens April 7th and I’ll get it translated into German in the meantime, I think it would be refreshing for Germans to see because it is not about the evilness of Nazis but they are rather more a backdrop to the actions, or lack of action, and mentality of the Norwegians. It would be interesting for people to see what happened to the history of Norway in relation to this small local story and the second world war.

Interview and photography: Trevor Good

Weekly feature - CampbellJane

Hello,

I'd love to welcome CampbellJane to my blog. This post is about featuring her etsy shop for

Art Originals Prints Folk Art with a Contemporary Touch

Here are my favorite paintings:

Sushiya Original ACEO Painting

Perfect Love Tulips and Bees Signed Print 8 x 8

The Sky's The Limit Original ACEO Mini Painting Collectible Card

Campbell Jane is a full-time artist. Painting & creating a colorful whimsical world of works for both of her Etsy shops. ~Recent Gallery Exhibitions~ Marco Fuoco Gallery, Sacramento, CA May-July 2010 Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, CA May 2010 Tangent Gallery, Sacramento, CA March 2010 Coffee Garden Gallery, Sacramento, CA Dec 09 Marco Fuoco Gallery, Sacramento, CA June 09 Cafe Refugio, Sacramento, CA Feb 09 Tangent Gallery, Sacramento, CA Nov 08 Marco Fuoco Gallery, Sacramento, CA Nov 08 Coffee Garden, Sacramento, CA Dec 08

Have a great week,

Nev

Stil in New York: Aya

Aya, make-up artist

Vintage coat,
Comme des Garçons skirt

She's a Lanvin

There are very few runway shows where applause and cheering are a seasonal recurrence. Even though most show productions in Paris are testimony to a higher degree of creativity, entertainment and imagination than any other city's, with beautiful venues, extravagant decors and state-of-the-art light and music systems, there are really just a handful of designers who receive standing ovations, and perhaps even evoke a few tears (of joy). For Lanvin's Alber Elbaz, this season was no different. As the models paraded by, in a single file or choreographed in groups of five, the audience applauded, whistled, pointed and smiled. And when the man made his two short bows in the end, following the closing group of five black girls in exotic greens and purples, I am certain a few tears were welling up in the front row.

The Lanvin family does not own the company anymore. The clothing line is in the hands of Mrs. Wang and the lucrative perfume business was bought by Interparfums. However, the family's affinity and connection with the brand is still intact and respected. It was therefore an absolute honor to shoot one of the Lanvin's most beautiful in-laws. Alessandra Lanvin, nee Guerrera, is married to Hubert Lanvin, the grandson of Jeanne Lanvin, the remarkable woman who launched the Couture label in 1909. Hubert and Alessandra live in a beautiful apartment in the prestigious Rue de la Pompe in Paris, with their 6-month old son, Victor. Before she got married, Alessandra was a headhunter in executive search for the fashion industry. And just recently she has started up an increasingly successful shoe company called Aperlai. After a short stint with two other founding members, she teamed up with a talented design consultant, Geraldina Bassani Antivari from Central Saint Martin's. Here's one blog's shout out: http://the-three-graces.com/2010/10/06/hot-new-shoe-alert-aperlai-spotted-in-paris/

Alessandra showed me some amazing, luxurious vintage pieces. Some of them Lanvin, most of them Chanel to be correct. She finds a lot of her vintage in Istanbul - her mother is Turkish. "The ladies from the old families in Istanbul used to wear a lot of Couture," she explains. "So you can find a lot of amazing vintage Couture for pretty cheap. In New York and Paris the stores are so overrated." 

Besides the beautiful pieces I saw, I am still in shock about how stunning and chic she is. 

Vintage leopard fur coat

Lanvin gold cuff

Alessandra in her bedroom, wearing a vintage Chanel leather jacket

1960's Chanel dress

Most of the jewelry is Chanel

1970's Christian Dior Couture fur

Black velours Chanel dress with Peter Pan dress.
"I wear this one a lot - it's one of my favorites"

Black velours Lanvin dress w rhinestone appliquee.

Givenchy Couture!
Alessandra leant me this dress for the French Vogue 90th anniversary masked ball that night. 

Due to construction in the building we did not get access to the Lanvin archives but hopefully, one day, Hubert's mother, Maryll, who holds the key, will grant me a peek? 

Vintage At Goodwood Video!

pps: I forgot to put this in - it is a brilliant 5 minute film of the best bits of Vintage At Goodwood Festival...its really good! http://www.vintageatgoodwood.com/gallery/video.aspx

A New Rudi Gernreich Dress..

Its been a busy week here with lots of vintage pieces flying out the door - Daisy Lowe has bought a lovely silk floral 1930s tea dress, my friends daughter Issy has taken away a 1950s sailors jacket, (she is the most stylish 16 year old in Bristol) designers have picked up some beaded and printed pieces and I have put aside all things Bridal for a meeting with more designers on Monday.... so now I am back on the (eternal) quest for more beautiful things. I went to see Brian and Roger, my friends in Bath, yesterday to sort out their 70s and 80s pieces for the up and coming auction (February 1st, Clifton, Bristol, full details coming soon!) but we did not get much work done...they ended up showing me the things that are not for sale. So many wonderful pieces, better fun than a museum as they let me try things on! The best pieces for me that I saw were a 1915 Lanvin couture evening coat and a 1930s Jean Desses (yes dated and numbered!) silk grecian dress, late 1930s with the most incredible hem, it reminded me of a car engine...wish I had a photo to show you what I mean! Anyway, I ended up convincing them to sell me a Rudi Gernreich dress, black wool with sweet neck and cuff details...I will be wearing it to death this winter, even if it is far too short, will look fantastic with black jeans and boots....xx ps: The next vintage fashion fair coming up is the lovely Frock Me, 31st October from 11 am, do email me for tickets.

Stil in New York: Thomas

Thomas, 23, works for Damir Doma

Damir Doma coat,
Prada top,
Givenchy shirt

Stil in New York: Zippy Seven

Zippy Seven, model from New Zealand

Tales in New York Magazine this week!

On a Saturday morning a couple of months ago, a New York magazine reporter, vintage store owner Greg Armas and myself were in line at the Upper West Side Goodwill at 9 AM. Some people had been posted in front of the store since 4 AM that morning, anticipating a huge deal on one of the new designer arrivals. (Did they not know most of it was fake?) Greg and I geared up to complete our challenge: spend $100 on as many items as possible that could be resold at better value. As soon as the clerk opened the door, we rushed in and went on our mission. I think we both did really well in the end. We both spent our money wisely on classic, timeless pieces. And we got to keep them too!

Interview: Little Otik

Kevin Avery and Jeffrey Sfire in their restaurant "Little Otik". Photo: Trevor Good

Jeffrey Sfire and Kevin Avery, two charming New Yorkers, came to Berlin two years ago and founded what was then new in town: the "Palisaden Supper Club". Once a month, the club opened for 10 people, where Jeffrey and Kevin invited them to their home to spoil them with a dainty three course meal made from regional and seasonal products they found at the markets. It was so successful that the couple decided to go for the real deal and when they found an abandoned space on Gräfestraße they knew it was the right time to turn their business into full time: "Little Otik" was born and it is named after the czech surrealist movie by Švankmajerová. To keep their life-work-balance the restaurant is only open at night from Wednesday to Saturday, and though it was just opened in August it is already wise to make a reservation (tel. 030-50362301). We sat down and talked to them about the taste of Berliners, why it is difficult to sell the oh-so-delicious pig's head meat and in the end they even gave an insight on this week's menu starring the last performance of what is going to be missed very soon: fruity tomatoes.


How did you come to Berlin?

Jeffrey Sfire : I came to Berlin to work as a DJ, that was what brought me and all of my friends here.

When was that?

Jeffrey: I started coming here five or six years ago just for summer, and to DJ, and I started meeting lots of friends and finally decided to move here. And at the same time Kevin was working at a small restaurant in New York that closed, so he came with me just to check it out for a few months. And then we ended up staying and starting the Palisaden Supper Club. And it really started from there, we didn't really know what was happening.

How did you get to the idea for the Supper Club?

Kevin Avery: We never thought about it before coming to Berlin. It wasn't like we wanted to move to do this thing. It just kind of happened after we came here. I came basically for a two month holiday and found a job the second day after I came here. If I hadn't found that job I probably wouldn't have stayed. It all seemed very meant to be. We thought of doing the Supper Club -- we'd try it once and see what happened and it just worked. We kept doing it and it became more and more interesting. Nothing was intentional. Doing the first Supper Club we didn't know what to expect and we didn't necessarily think we would do it once a month.

Inviting ten strangers to your home is still not very common.

Kevin: The concept is almost as old as mankind, people have done this for thousands of years, I think at some point it became less common and now it is becoming popular again. A thousand years ago, if you were on some dirty road in the middle of nowhere, there's a house and you would just go in there.

Did you get the idea in New York?

Kevin: Yes.

But you did not do it in New York?

Kevin: No, I was always working a lot of hours in restaurants, I had no time to do it. That was the thing about coming to Berlin, I found a job in a bakery for just about 25 hours a week, so I actually had time to do it. In New York you can't get by by working just 20 hours a week. Unless you are a bartender or something. But that was what gave us the opportunity to do it here, we didn't have to make as much money to survive.

So you did not intend to transform it into a restaurant?

Kevin: In New York I did not even think about anything like that - it would have been so expensive, and there is so much competition. And I've had so many friends opening a restaurant and they turned out all very similar, since they all are based on the same concept. Coming to Berlin seemed like the perfect opportunity to offer something that was not common here.

How was it to welcome 10 strangers in your own house?

Kevin: We never had any problems at all. There was only one person that made a reservation and didn't show up.

Only one?

Kevin: Yes. And everybody always came, everybody pretty much came on time, everybody was very kind and respectful. There were never any problems. Sometimes by the end of the night we were very tired and wanted everyone to leave, but people wanted to hang out. A lot of people asked for strange stories, but it was always very straightforward and pleasant. We never had any major disasters with the food.

Jeffrey: But we operated it like a restaurant - people came in, sat down, I served the food, people would chat and then it was over. We never tried to do anything more than that.

How long did you do it?

Kevin: The first one was in February 2009 and the last one was in May 2010.

Did you stop it because you found this place?

Kevin: Yes, we signed the contract in March and after May we were too busy with doing the renovation here. We opened in August.

How did you came to the decision to open a restaurant?

Kevin: It felt very natural.

Jeffrey: I started to look for a second location to do the supper club at, because it started to be annoying to do it at our house. We kept saying, if we had a location just for the Supper Club, we could do it more often and leave everything there. Then I started to look at renting a real restaurant. The big problem was also the kitchen, we've worked in a home kitchen where it was more difficult to make food on a very small stove.

Did you use the common Berlin type oven that everyone has?

Jeffrey: Yes

I only have three plates on mine, you had four?

Jeffrey: No, we only had three. And we bought an extra refrigerator, but it did not really work out.

Kevin: To make everything took so much longer.

So Kevin, you're a professional chef, right?

Kevin: I studied art in college, but I always worked in restaurants. There was this point where my passion for food became bigger than my passion for art, and I realized I was better at making food than I was at making art. In the beginning I was fighting against the food thing, because I really wanted to make art. But then I was fine with the realization that I was better at making food.

Was this in New York?

Kevin: Yes

Do you both come from New York?

Kevin: No, my mother's family is from New York. I grew up in Connecticut and moved to New York when I was about 23 and lived there for 10 years.

Jeffrey: I grew up in Detroit and moved to Chicago, then New York. I lived in New York for four or five years before moving to Berlin. We met in New York.

Did you find this place by chance?

Jeffrey: Yes, we were just looking at listings.

Were you looking in this area?

Jeffrey: First we wanted to be on the other side of Kottbusser Damm. We thought it was a newer and up-and-coming neighbourhood. We spent months walking the streets and writing down numbers of empty spaces. In this time we learnt a lot about opening a business, changing a shop into a restaurant and how difficult this would be. We had seen this place here a few times and the condition was so bad that we just kept walking away from it because it was so trashed. The last restaurant owners moved out and it was empty for 6 or 7 months. And it was in a really bad condition and needed a lot of work. After a while we realized this is what we actually could do. It was the right price and a good location and so we decided to take it and totally renovated it.

What does that mean?

Jeffrey: Everything you see is new.

Kevin: 90 percent of it.

Jeffrey: The kitchen and the bathrooms were here and okay. That was the most important thing, that it was already a restaurant and had the main things in it - the Abzugshaube, the bathroom, the gas for the stoves, things like this. All we had to do was to make it look pretty.

Kevin: It had laminate floors and the ceiling was all styrofoam Stuck.

Jeffrey: They had these things coming from the ceiling that looked like in a Chinese restaurant, these crazy sculptures made out of styrofoam.

Kevin: And there was a tiki bar with a bamboo decoration.

Jeffrey: The whole place had been made by the last owners, self made. It was really bad.

Kevin: They built a counter against the windows, you couldn't open them. They painted the windows from the outside. It was very dirty, we kept finding food everywhere in the corners that has been there for months. It was trashed.

So you spent from March to July renovating?

Kevin: We did all the demolishing. We knew a carpenter and he did all the carpentry work, and the Hausmeister helped us a lot, he installed the floors. It was pretty easy but it took a lot of time.

Jeffrey: I had a lot of experience in construction renovation, because that's what my father does. To me it was really exciting. The floor is second hand from a gymnasium, a Turnhalle. We bought a lot of things at "Historische Bauelemente".

And what's with the tables?

Jeffrey: Those are market tables, we just built the bottom construction.

What kind of image did you have in mind?

Kevin: The easiest explanation is that I wanted it to look like the country house I never was able to have.

A cottage?

Kevin: Yes, exactly, It's like a model for what the eventual country house will look like. We wanted it to be very homey and grandma.

And what's with the name?

Kevin: "Little Otik" is one of my favorite films and I am very enamored by the director's creativity. The film has a food undertone, it is subtle..

What's it about?

Kevin: It's based on a Czech fairytale, about a couple that can't have a child. The husband cuts a wooden log in the backyard, that looks like a baby and the wife brings it to life in her need to have a child. But it turns out to be a monster and basically eats the entire village.

Okay.

Jeffrey: It has a huge appetite, and the people are constantly feeding it and they cannot bring it enough food and eventually it eats all the people

Kevin: You should watch it, it's a brilliant film and the director is amazing, it also has some stop animation in it. It is somewhat dark but very funny. A lot of people are put off be the explanation of the film, but I am enamored by the creativity of this person. It does not necessarily inspire me on food, but to do things I want to do. His visuals, dialogues and cinematography is all very powerful and special.

So let's talk about the food! Do you have a fixed menu?

Kevin: No, it depends. We print the menu everyday, at least one thing is changed everyday. Some things we really like we have for a month, some things we just have for a week. It changes all the time, but it is not completely different every week. Since the first week the menu has become much more rounded and better.

How do you choose the dishes?

Kevin: I am mostly inspired by vegetables. What is at the market, or what I want to eat. If I am really craving something then I will make a dish, so I can eat it. A lot of things I have been making forever, classic dishes, or interpretations of classic dishes.

How would you describe the style of your food.

Kevin: Sometimes I just want to say its like Oma Essen, rustic classic European food. There are some American things about it, but I really don't like to say American because it has a negative sound to it.

Sounds like fries and burgers…

Kevin: Exactly, with food, if you say something is American, people don't respect it.

Is there something to be respected about American food?

Kevin: Yes, of course!

Pumpkin?

Kevin: I think Europeans have a misunderstanding of American food. It is such a broad term, it can mean so many different things.

What does it mean to you?

Kevin: For me it's a concept of the melting pot of America, you can really take from any culture and create a dish, it doesn't have to be put in a box, like this is French, this is Italian. If it's American, one dish can be French, Italian and Turkish. There are probably more good restaurants in New York City than there are in the country of Germany, so that means something about American food.

So it's American food as long as it is made in America? I don't want to say anything against American food, but to me it's just fries.

Kevin: If you think of New York and its restaurant and food culture it is so much stronger than a lot of the European places..

As Berlin as well?

Kevin: Yes, I think so. It is very different. Americans are much more open to eating experiences. It Berlin it can be a struggle.

Jeffrey: I think Berlin is very different from other German cities.

What do you mean with struggle? Don't Germans have good taste in food?

Kevin: No, I don't mean that! But, coming from a different country it is very hard to understand what people want and expect.

But you have been pretty successful in making dishes Berlin based people like.

Kevin: Yes, but, for example, we try to use all organic ingredients. In New York this would be assumed by certain types of restaurants. Here people want to be told, they don't assume a certain level of quality based on the menu. You have to tell them: this is organic.

In New York it is different?

Kevin: Yes, it would just be assumed. Here you have to write it all over the menu if something is organic to have people pay a certain amount of money..

for the happy lamb?

Kevin: Exactly.

It shows their interest in what they are eating.

Kevin: Definitely.

Jeffrey: It's harder to make something that costs more in Berlin. So many people are just looking at the price before looking at the food and making assumptions just based on that. If people knew that small farmers, mostly only husband and wife are bringing us most of our vegetables and put so much care and love in all of it, this may justify it.

But your location is pretty good for not having a big struggle with that compared with places like.. Lichtenberg. Kreuzberg and especially this Kiez is pretty open-minded and relatively wealthy.

Kevin: Yes, but for example - I make all the desserts and often people are asking if they are homemade and to me it just seems that it would be very obvious that they are homemade. Writing everywhere that these things are organic and homemade would seem too pretentious.

Jeffrey: A lot of people think that because we use organic ingredients that it is all super-healthy or vegetarian - some people even asked if the meat is real!

Kevin: That is what I wanted to say, we were surprised by what people were...

Jeffrey: ...coming in thinking. At the same time people are incredibly open and excited. Especially after they taste the food. After eating here you get it.

Kevin: It just has to do with coming from a different country and starting a business. It is very difficult and there are a lot of things you have to learn and try to figure out. It's very different from opening a restaurant in New York...

Which you wouldn't have been able to do…

Kevin: No... We could have but we would have had to go into a lot of debt.

Or get a big investor influencing your work…

Kevin: It would have been a lot harder.



I want to talk more about food, about autumn food. You are going to the market tomorrow, do you already have something in mind that will be up this week?

Kevin: I will be looking for things that I don't expect. I've noticed that the Romanesco is out, I definitely want to make something with that..

What are you going to make?

Kevin: Probably some salad, or maybe fried... I never really know what I am doing until..

But you have to print the menu?

Jeffrey: We print the menu an hour before we open.

Oh.. so you get into the kitchen on Wednesday?

Kevin: Usually I start on Tuesdays at 10, and make a list of what we have and need and then I go to the market and buy all the vegetables and come back and cook. And then usually by the end of Tuesday I know what I want to do on Wednesday. So it depends. The past few weeks we had different things with pumpkin... I am inspired by vegetables, even the meat dishes are based on the vegetables that come along with it. We always have four or five side dishes, only vegetables, that you could have as an appetizer or with your main dish, or you could have a couple as a main dish if you are vegetarian. Like roasted beet roots with the beet's greens and horseradish, roasted pumpkin with goat cheese and honey or cauliflower with tahini sauce.

How did you prepare that?

Kevin: I mix Tahini with lemon juice and garlic and a little bit of soy sauce, and thin it out with a bit of water. The cauliflower is roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper. Then the sauce is just drizzled on top of it.

That sounds really good.

Kevin: I like to present the vegetables in their natural state. I might not take the skin off the pumpkin or leave the beet root as they are and not slice it. I like the idea of challenging people a little, preparing the dishes in a very simple way. To have people think about what they are eating.

To see what you eat?

Kevin: We've also had pig's head!

What do you mean?

Kevin: We had the head cooked, cut off the meat and serve it in a soup..

Is there so much meat on a pig's head?

Kevin: Kind of.. the cheek is the biggest part. Its more than you think.

What kind of soup was it?

Kevin: Red lentil soup. We cut the meat in pieces and served it in the soup. It was not very popular.

Because of the name I would guess?

Jeffrey: It wasn't very popular, but there were some people who were like, I wanna try it! That were very adventurous and wanted to try something they hadn't eaten before. They were asking questions about it and that was really exciting.

I guess it's a very classic and also organic approach to use the whole animal..

Kevin: Of course. That is a very good point. It is definitely important to us, to get away from the easy things. If something is unpopular, it does not mean that it is bad.

So you are going to bring back the pig's head?

Kevin: For sure! I want to put it in aspic. What it is called in German?

Its called Sülze, Schweinskopfsülze.

Kevin: I'll make that!

So I'll come by and try it.

Kevin: The pig's head meat is so delicious, it doesn't taste as strong as liver or other parts. There is nothing weird or gross about it. I think it's the best part.

But you are always offering vegetarian alternatives?

Jeffrey: Most of the time there is a vegetarian main dish, and half of the menu is vegetarian anyway. You could easily combine a main course out of the sides.

Kevin: We always try to have a vegetarian main dish, there are a lot of vegetarians in Berlin. I was vegetarian for a long time and I like to eat vegetarian a lot so I am more than happy to cook vegetarian.

I recognize you've got a lot of desserts.

Kevin: That's my favorite thing to make, that's why. Some days we only have one..

Jeffrey: Usually we have four, but sometimes we have more. I think a lot of chefs do not like to make desserts, is that true?

Kevin: Yes, I guess.

Jeffrey: But Kevin loves to make desserts and we get some of the strongest reactions out of the desserts. Some people really freak out.

A lot of people would rather freak out on a dessert than on an appetizer. A really well made chocolate cake is so much more impressing..

Kevin: It's because of the sugar and the chocolate. We had one night when two different people had to have another piece of cake, which I've never seen happen in my entire career.

Maybe the body image is not as strong in Berlin as in New York, so you can have another piece of cake.

Kevin: That's true, people seem to be more open to eating a lot. Lots of bread and sugar.

Bread is a German thing.. Please, give us some insights on what is on the menu this week.

Kevin: We will have venison. We've been buying our wild meat from a hunter at Berliner Wildhandel.

From Brandenburg?

Jeffrey: Yes, he has a shop at Mehringdamm and one at Greifswalder, Prenzlauer Berg. He is a hunter and he has other hunters bringing him the butchered meat. He has very interesting stuff, venison, wild goat, Wildschwein, rabbit and Hirsch.

Kevin: So we will have the venison and we will have duck leg, and I am going to make parsnip soup. I will make this vegetarian, with leeks and then pureed, and then we will put fried wild boar ham on top. And I am going to make duck liver pate. And there is one farmer we get really good tomatoes from..

Still?

Kevin: It's almost over. Maybe there is one more week.

The last week of tomatoes for this year!

Kevin: Yes, its a very big deal.

Jeffrey: His tomatoes are very good, its the Schloßgärtnerei.

Kevin: He has the best tomatoes in Berlin I've seen so far. He sells them at the market at the corner of Dieffenbachstraße and Schönleinstraße on Tuesdays.

Jeffrey: It's a very small market and they have only organic stands.

Kevin: I also go to the Turkish market at Maybachufer and there are three or four people that have really nice stuff.

The one market stand right by Kottbusser Damm, the really big one?

Kevin: Yes, that's the good one. And then there is Roberto with his Wilde Gärtnerei, we get the apple and pear juice from him. He has amazing vegetables and he grows all these varieties of wild lettuces and we always have a salad that is made from his lettuces and herbs. He probably grows twenty different kinds of weeds and lettuces. I really think the farmers deserve a lot of praise and credit.

For still doing this?

Kevin: Yes, because I really work hard, but I don't have to get up at four in the morning and drive two hours to Berlin hoping that people will buy my vegetables.

And did you already plan the desserts?

Kevin: Yes, I will make a Persimon pudding. Which is not from Brandenburg, but it's really delicious. I can't resist.

Do you test all the dishes at home?

Kevin: A lot of the things I did for a long time. I haven't really cooked anything at home since we opened..

So what are you eating at home?

Jeffrey: Leftovers!

Which is not too bad.

Kevin: And sometimes I enjoy frozen pizza and gummibärs. I am not a food fascist.



Interview: Mary Scherpe
Photography: Trevor Good

weekly feature - Blue White Jewelrywear

Hello, this week I am feturing very interesting etsy shop for handmade Jewelry in Blue and White. Here is the link to the shop : click here

Blue White Wear creates jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, earrings) with an oriental touch! A modern version of East meets West.

Unique jewelry for unique women.

My favorite items:

Oriental Blues Necklace

Chinese Chop Suey Bracelet

Visit their blog
Follow their on Twitter

Thanks for visiting

Stil in Toronto: Jennifer

Jennifer, 25, photographer

Dress by Alexander Wang

Stil in Toronto: Liam

Liam, 24, artist

Georgia on my mind

It's funny how people always say "I want to come back as soon as possible" when they visit a place, even before they have finished the trip. With London I have always had the averse feeling, couldn't wait to get out of there. Even though I lived there 13 years ago and the experience changed my life for ever and for the better, any time I would come back there were a million things that bothered me: the foggy weather, the cold shoulders, the long travel distances, the gossip, the ridiculous prices... There wasn't an excuse too finicky to smear this city. 

About a month ago I was in town to cast Mark Fast's SS11 show. And since I wasn't going to Milan, I had a gap until I started my job in Paris the following week. So I decided to stay. It was cold, wet and lonely but to my surprise I rediscovered my love for London. Through vintage. What else.

London is a huge competitor with New York when it comes to vintage. I would almost say it's better! When I lived here, I would always go to Portobello Market and Camden Town on the weekends, but while I was doing my research and asked connoisseurs for recommendations, I found so many other amazing places I couldn't even get the complete picture anymore! 

For the first half of my shopping day I had the pleasure of model/stylist Georgia Frost's company. I've known Georgia for a few years now and even though she changes hair color like a chameleon, she's always maintained that cool It-girl, English Rose demeanor. It was a joy to dress and photograph her. She brought that little something extra, through her own bohemian style and je-m'en-fou attitude. And she's for hire! Check her blog: http://www.thisisgeorgiafrost.blogspot.com. 

Georgia Frost is represented by Select in London.

First up was Annie's in Angel. Annie is a sweet woman whose store is filled with delicate lace, fluffy cashmere and decorative accessories. Find more about her store on http://www.anniesvintageclothing.co.uk/?page_id=9. On that same block you will find three other vintage stores, and a daily antiques market.

White embroidered camisole and white lace ruffle underpants

White lace summer dress and lambskin jacket

I LOVE this hat. Looks like balls of ice cream on top of your head. And 1920's embroidered night gown.

Ossie Clark navy, crepe 2-piece suit with red satin trim and cream fur hat.

Silver sequined dress and wool docker.

Georgia suggested we hit Bang Bang next, a cool consignment store where she finds most of her clothes. "It's dangerous going in there! I always spend money." You can find them on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bangbangexchange.

Punk t-shirt, Prada flower skirt and mini-teddy-bear denim courier bag.

It's a bag!! 

Pringle cardigan, Marc Jacobs skirt and pistachio bow belt.

The shop keeper wanted to be in the picture!

And the damage was done: Georgia bought both the wool pants and the Mary Quant peasant top.

Ted Baker dress with Union Flag motif.

It's funny how people can change their minds. I definitely have to come back. As soon as possible!